America’s 10 most visited national parks

Nearly 70 million people visited America’s national parks last year.

The one that surprised me on the top 10 list was Olympic National Park in Washington State, sixth with three million visitors even though there are no roads you can drive on through the park.

Even No. 1 surprised me, because it’s the Great Smoky Mountains at 10 million. I thought the Grand Canyon would beat that total, but it’s No. 2 with 4.8 million. Not even close.

The others in the top 10:

3. Yosemite, with almost four million, the California park whose creation was caused after a crusade by naturalist pioneer John Muir.

4. Yellowstone, which is No. 1 on my list of those national parks I have visited, but drew only 3.5 million. It covers  2.2 million acres in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and may be the world’s largest calderon, which means, if it blows, America might be reduced to 40 states.

5. Rocky Mountain in Colorado, which has 150 lakes and 450 miles of streams. Paula and I took in Rocky after a WVU football game against Colorado in Boulder.

7. Zion in Utah’s high plateau country with 3.5 million visitors. I was more impressed with Bryce Canyon, about an hour away from Zion, because it looked like nature sculptured thousands of objects on it.

8. Grand Teton in Wyoming with 2.8 million visitors.

9. Acadia in Maine which has a companion vista in Bar Harbor and the whale-watching ships.

10. Glacier National Park, which covers more than a million acres in Montana and draws 2.3 million people a year.

I’ve been to nine, never visiting Olympic National Park, which is separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Victoria, British Columbia, where I have been in my travels to 53 countries and 43 states. So close, but we stopped in Victoria on our way to our Alaska cruises, one by sea and two by sea and land.

By comparison, New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area and the Bluestone National Scenic River combined draw 1.2 million visitors last year. A study showed that 45% of the people visiting those three didn’t know that they were in national parks. The trifecta brought 1.2 million visitors and $60.6 million to the economy of the four surrounding counties. Park tourism supported 670 jobs.

The New River Gorge National River is considered the No. 1 attraction in West Virginia, followed by Seneca Caverns, Blackwater Falls, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (just called Weston’s nuthouse before the politically correct days), Monongahela National Forest, Snowshoe mountain resort, the West Virginia State Capitol with its gold dome and the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston.

West Virginia also has 36 state parks. The most photographed spot is the falls in Blackwater Falls State Park near Davis.